Page 34 - Bonhams September 12 2018 New York Japanese Works of Art

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MUROE KICHIBEI 室江吉兵衛 (1841-1903) During the Edo period (1615–1868), the cities of Kanazawa in
A Rare Pair of Large Bronze Hōō Bird and Tortoise Okimono Kaga Province (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture) and Takaoka in
Ornaments Etchū Province (Toyama Prefecture) developed as major artistic
鳳亀彫金象嵌ブロンズ置物一対 metalworking centers thanks to the patronage of the Maeda
Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1880 samurai clan, aside from the ruling Tokugawa dynasty the wealthiest
The tall dark-brown patinated bronze birds with complementary in all Japan. In the very early years of the Meiji era, government
symmetry, one with its left wing extended and its right folded, the bureaucrats encouraged the development of a metalworking industry
other with its right wing extended and its left folded, each standing in both cities, in particular by commissioning work for display at
on the back of a kame (tortoise), the feathers and other details the Vienna Weltausstelllung (World Exposition) held in 1873, and
minutely chiseled and inlaid in gold, silver, and copper, the edges of following the success of Japanese metalwork at that great global
the turtles’ carapaces inlaid in gold with a stylized cloud design, the event Takaoka entrepreneurs set up private companies to capitalize
eyes inlaid in gold, each signed underneath the turtle with chiseled on new opportunities for international trade. The city remains to this
characters Dainihonkoku Etchū Takaoka Muroe Kichibei tsukuru 大 day a major center for the manufacture of ornamental bronze.
日本國 越中 高岡 室江吉兵衛造 (Made by Muroe Kichibei of
Takaoka in Etchū [Province] in the Country of Great Japan) Like Suzuki Chōkichi in Tokyo (see lots 1, 10, 20), Muroe Kichibei
Height 32 7/8 in. (83.4 cm) and his colleagues in Takaoka and Kanazawa combined outstanding
bronze-casting and bronze-finishing skills, honed by centuries
$60,000 - 80,000 creating Buddhist images, with the crafts of inlay and chiseling that
had long been an essential component of sword decoration. This
striking, boldly modeled pair of ornaments features two of the ancient
Chinese mythical animals associated with the four cardinal directions:
the hōō (conventionally translated into English as “phoenix”) and
the kame, a tortoise-like creature, here with what looks like a
dragon’s head. These creatures are depicted on some of the earliest
masterpieces of Japanese Buddhist art and the hōō has long been
a symbol of the emperor, in both China and Japan, making it a
particularly apt iconographic choice during a period defined by the
re-assertion of imperial power in the person of the Meiji Emperor.

Surviving works by this artist displayed in recent years at Takaoka
City Museum of Art include another pair of okimono of similar size
to the present lot, including two more ancient Chinese auspicious
creatures—the kirin (unicorn) and dragon—in addition to the hōō and
kame, and a bronze flower vase engraved and inlaid with a cat on a
banana leaf. The museum also owns an inlaid and engraved flower
vase by Muroe that is of similar form to the pair by Suzuki Chōkichi
offered in the present catalogue (lot 20).

Reference
Bunkachō n.d.
Meiji-ki Takaoka Dōki Chōkin Meisaku Hozonkai 明治期高岡銅器彫
金名作保存会 (Association for the Preservation of Masterpieces of
Meiji-Era Bronze Vessels and Metalwork from Takaoka), 1985,
pp. 156-157
Takaoka-shi Bijutsukan 高岡市美術館 (Takaoka City Museum of Art)
2012

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